1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates to a semiconductor package, a memory card including the same, and a mold for fabricating the memory card, and more particularly, to a semiconductor package used to fabricate a memory card with high density at low manufacturing costs, a memory card including the same, and a mold for fabricating the memory card
2. Description of the Related Art
As various electronic technologies are developed, increasing amounts of information can be stored in a single memory card. Memory cards are portable due to their small size and thickness. These advantages have led to a dramatic increase in the demand for memory devices. A memory card includes a plastic base card that has a semiconductor package in which a semiconductor chip is mounted on a printed circuit board. That is, the semiconductor chip is disposed on an inside surface of the printed circuit board, and pads are formed on an outside surface of the printed circuit board. The pads are used to electrically connect the memory card to a card terminal. The semiconductor chip is wire-bonded to a circuit interconnection formed on the inside surface of or on the printed circuit board, and the circuit interconnection is electrically connected to the pads. The semiconductor chip and the wire are encased by an encapsulant.
FIG. 1 is a plan diagram illustrating a conventional memory card. FIG. 2 is a sectional diagram taken along the line II-II in FIG. 1, further illustrating the conventional memory card of FIG. 1.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the conventional memory card includes a printed circuit board 10 and a semiconductor chip 18 mounted thereon. The semiconductor chip 18 is connected to the printed circuit board 10 via a circuit interconnection 12 formed on the surface of and through the printed circuit board 10 and via wires 20. A semiconductor package includes the semiconductor chip 18, the wires 20, and an encapsulant 22, such as a resin, formed on the printed circuit board 10.
The circuit interconnection 12 is connected to an external device (not shown) through a pad 16 formed on a lower surface of the printed circuit board 10. The semiconductor package, including the semiconductor chip 18 disposed on the printed circuit board 10, the wire 20, and the encapsulant 22, is adhered to a base card 26 by an adhesive 24.
The outer structure of the semiconductor package of the conventional memory card is formed when a printed circuit board including a chamfer portion CP is manufactured indicated by a line RL shown in FIG. 1. Therefore, the manufacturing costs for the printed circuit board are high.
The encapsulant 22 of the semiconductor package of the conventional memory card is disposed inside a line ML shown in FIG. 1, that is, inside the line RL, such that exposed portions EP are formed on edge regions of the printed circuit board 10. The presence of the exposed portions EP results in a smaller semiconductor chip packaging area.
FIG. 3 is a plan diagram illustrating another conventional memory card. FIG. 4 is a sectional diagram taken along the line IV-IV in FIG. 3, further illustrating the conventional memory card of FIG. 3.
In FIGS. 1-4, like numbers denote like elements, so a duplicative description of elements in FIGS. 3 and 4 that are the same as elements in FIGS. 1 and 2 will not be repeated.
Referring to FIGS. 3 and 4, the line RL, indicating the extent of the encapsulant 22, and the line ML, indicating the extent of the printed circuit board 10, are aligned with each other. Therefore, unlike the memory card illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, exposed portions EP are not formed on edge regions of the printed circuit board 10. The absence of the exposed portions EP results in an increase in the semiconductor chip packaging area. In addition, the printed circuit board 10 in FIGS. 3 and 4 can be manufactured at low costs compared to the printed circuit board 10 illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2. Therefore, the productivity of the memory card illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4 is higher.
However, the use of the memory card illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4 is limited due to the difficulty involved in manufacturing the chamfered portion CP. Furthermore, a pad cannot be formed in a portion 28 of the base card 26 that is adjacent to the chamfered portion CP.
Embodiments of the invention address these and other disadvantages of the conventional art.